Never Letting Go
by Kate7950
Summary: After everything he just went through, there was no way that he was going to loose his grip on the one person that's meant the most to him the last ten years.


**A/N: One shot based on the scene in Chapter 14 (Royal Edition) where Noctis asks Prompto how things went with 'you know who'. My interpretation of what happened between Prompto and Cindy and what happened post game.**

 _ _Just remember: Hold on tight to the ones you love and don__ _'_ _ _t let go. Loose your grip and you loose 'em for good.__

The kings words echoed in his head as he speed through the Leiden plains. It had been so long since he laid eyes anything so bright. The now dead vegetation glowed under the bright sun light as he saw the ground for the true color it was always intended to been seen.

Crowds were beginning to form outside of the old city check point. Most of whom were curious to know what was left of the once mighty Crown City, others wanted to celebrate the king who brought back the light. If only they knew the truth. Gladio took off with Talcott, on their way to Lestallum to gather supplies and pick up Monica and Dustin to help with the initial surveying of the city. He also wanted to tell Iris in person the fate of her beloved friend and long time crush. In his words: __this isn't something you tell someone over the phone__. Ignis stayed behind with the marshal, helping with the initial planning of rebuilding their home. Sure, he felt guilty leaving them to the task, but he had to do this, he __needed__ to do this. They understood, and for that he was grateful.

Prompto gave a heavy sigh as he continued to drive. He had been so suave in responding to his best friends inquiry into his love life since the darkness, but what was he supposed to do. How was he supposed to respond to that? Tell him he spent the last ten years trying to impress her? That this entire time he kept telling himself that he wasn't good enough, or she is too busy with her work for a relationship? That after helping her one night restore an old armory truck, they had one too many beers and slept together? And then the next day both of them acted like it meant nothing to them. That no matter how many girls he kissed, dated or slept with since, none of them could compare to that one drunken night with the girl he's loved since the moment they rolled the Regalia into that garage.

Seeing Noct again, watching him so selflessly sacrifice himself for the people he loved to bring happiness and light back to the world, made him realize what was important in life. And damn it there was no way he was going to start living in this new age for Eos with lingering regrets. Noct would never have wanted that.

Prompto tightened his hands on the steering wheel as he saw Hammerhead appear in the distance. It looked so different in the sunlight. They had really turned Cid's beloved garage into quite the fortress these last ten years. He made a mental note to himself to make removing the barbed wired fences the first thing done before Cid returned back home. He knew the spry old timer wouldn't want to be stuck back in Lestallum knowing things were safer back at his true home. As if on auto pilot Prompto turned into Hammerhead, the gate no longer being guarded by hunters and left opened for passers by to come and go as they pleased. He hastily parked the truck over by a pile of large supply crates and hopped out. He threw his Kingsglaive jacket into the back of the truck and moved quickly to the garage hanger, knowing even with the sun shinning bright that his goddess of the gears would still be working hard on whatever project she had going.

As he scanned the hanger he frowned seeing that there were no signs of her anywhere. Just as he was about to turn around and try Takka's old diner he noticed a light coming from Cid's, now Cindy's office. He gave a relieved sigh as he made as way over, hoping he didn't loose his nerve between now and when he saw her. Before he could get half way across the garage he watched as the door swung open and it's occupant made it's way outside. His breath hitched as he watched her shield her eyes from the suns rays filtering into the steel structure.

He didn't think Cindy could be more beautiful than she already was, but seeing her there with the newly restored sun rays shinning on her perfectly curled, albeit longer blonde hair, he knew he thought wrongly. Cindy turned to him and gave him a concerned look as she noticed the cuts and scraps on his exposed skin.

"Prompto…you look like you dun near went through hell and back how did you get…" she began but he didn't let her finish.

In the time it took her to finish her sentence Prompto had marched his way over to her and pulled her lips to his in a searing and passionate kiss. Cindy's olive green eyes starred back in shock, frozen in place by the sudden action from her long time companion. Prompto let out a shaky breath as he pulled a way, stroked her cheek with his thumb before leaning down once more to press a gentle loving kiss to her lips.

As he pulled away again he watched her eyes follow his as he pressed his forehead to hers, knocking her hat off her head and allowing her blonde curls to sway freely.

"Prompto what in the world…" Cindy started again but as if on queue he stopped her once more.

"I love you. I've loved you from the moment we pushed the Regalia into the garage that day ten years ago. And every time me and the guys came back for a break or to run an errand I fell in love with you even more. I know the guys used to tease me saying it was just puppy love but I knew that wasn't true. There has never been another woman in all of Eos that has ever made me feel the way I feel when I am with you and there never will be. And before you say that I am wasting my time because you are married to your work that's OK. You wouldn't be Cindy if you weren't, and I get that…I always did. That's why I didn't….that's why I didn't say anything after we fixed up that armory truck awhile back." Prompto rambled out.

Cindy stood there stunned as Prompto pulled away from her and looked away. She could tell he was nervously fidgeting with his wrist, a habit she noticed long ago when he used to wear a wrist band on that arm. When he told her about the barcode and how it came to be a few years into the darkness, her heart broke for him. Prompto was such a sweet and kindhearted man and didn't deserve the trauma he had gone through.

"What…what brought this on all of a sudden?" Cindy asked him as he stopped what he was doing and turned to her.

"I…don't want any regrets. After what just went down in the Crown City…with Noct I…don't want to keep moving forward without being honest with myself…and to you. So, yeah…sorry if that makes things weird…" Prompto said scratching the back of his head.

"The king's gone ain't he?" Cindy asked as she moved closer to him, placing a comforting hand on his shoulder.

Prompto silently nodded trying to hold back tears remembering the sight of Noctis marching towards the Citadel alone. Soon he felt a gentle kiss on his cheek and Cindy wrapping her arms around him, giving him a comforting squeeze. Cautiously Prompto wrapped his arms around her as they held each other for a few moments, processing the grief of their lost friend together. After a few moments Cindy was the first one to pull away, placing her hand lovingly on his cheek.

"I always knew you know. You never needed to say it." she said with a small smile on her face.

Prompto's eyes widened at her words "You…you did? Wait…for how long?"

Cindy laughed "You weren't exactly the subtle type. Even that night…I didn't drink that much you know."

Prompto frowned "Then why did you…"

"Act like nothin' happened? I…got scared. I've lost so many people I cared about to this dag-on darkness and the daemons….I didn't want to get too close to someone else knowin' they might get taken away too. I know you're strong and all that Prom but even then…I don't think I could handle knowing you, __especially__ you, got taken away from me too. I always appreciated that you never treated me like I was just some hot girl workin' on cars in a bikini top. You always understood my love for this garage and working on machines. You've always respected me for who I am and have always been so nice to me offerin' to help out here…take out daemons at any given moment. You didn't even laugh at me when I told you I was scared of the dark even with the headlights shinning into Hammerhead." Cindy explained, folding her arms over her dark blue overalls.

Prompto smiled back at her "How could I laugh at you for that? After everything you went through with your parents and…"

"I know…that's why I'm so scared of loosin' you Prompto. I…dang it I guess what I'm trying to say here is that I love you too chocobo boy." she said looking up into his bright blue eyes.

Prompto was pretty sure he couldn't smile any wider than he was in that moment. The girl who he has pined over for the last ten years just admitted her love for him. The only thing that would make the moment better would be if Noctis was there to see it.

"Well are you just gonna stand there an smile at me or are yah gonna kiss me again?" Cindy said with a huff as she crossed her arms.

Without hesitation Prompto leaned down and capture her lips with his once more, feeling her wrap her arms around his neck, pull him closer to her deepening the kiss. He didn't even care that there were people pulling into the station at that moment. Or that he could have sworn he heard a customer making a lewd comment about them from outside the hanger. All that mattered was the two of them, embracing in newly restored rays of sunlight, finally having confessed their feelings for one another.

After hearing another person whistle from afar Cindy pulled away and smirked at him "Why don't we take this upstairs where we won't have an audience hrmm?"

Prompto gulped as he nodded slowly, following her up the stairs to the living quarters above the garage where the two of them spent the rest of the day and night expressing the love they cultivated for one another over the last ten years.

In the early morning, when the first ray's of sunshine came filtering into Cindy's room he couldn't help but smile at the sleeping form wrapped in his arms beside him. She had a content smile on her face as the sun lit up her features. Even at thirty six, Cindy didn't look a day over twenty five. Prompto moved a strand of blond curls out of her face and pressed a gentle kiss forehead. Silently he vowed to himself that from this day forward he would never let his goddess of the gears go, spending as much time as he could loving and cherishing the woman who would always have his heart for eternity.

Cindy suddenly stirred from her sleep, slowly opening her eyes and giving Prompto a warm smile. Slowly she took her free hand and reached up, rubbing his cheek affectionately.

"Mornin' sunshine." Cindy said as she watched him look down at her.

Prompto smiled as he took her hand in his, giving it a squeeze "Hey there…"

"Looks like it's going to be another sunny day out there. The sun is shinning bright again." she said as he held her hand.

"Yeah…it does doesn't it? But it's not as bright as the one I'm looking at in here." Prompto said as he leaned down and kissed her once more, the two enjoying the time the King of Light had given them, time neither of them would ever take for granted.


End file.
